The Roman siege of Masada ended in mass suicide by the trapped Jewish rebels. But absent archaeological evidence, it all boils down to the question of whether you think Josephus aspired to accuracy
Old thinking: They had tiny wings like baby bats and chicks. New thinking: No they didn’t, and since they could take wing right after hatching, they may not have needed parental protection
Dockworkers in ancient Rome ate as lavishly as the elites, excavations at the port of Imperial Rome find — until the Vandals vanquished the legions in the year 455
The syntax of obscure Hindu Vedic chants whose origin is lost in time isn't like any known human language, but matches the patterns of two bird species
Never mind the chicken and the egg, discovery of plumed pterosaur shows feathers developed more than 250 million years ago
Early farmers in Catalhöyük in Turkey had whipworms, new study shows, while other research found that hunter-gatherers had more of a tapeworm problem
Dozens of meters wide, at least two stories high, 2,200 years after it was built, the Kingdom of Tryphon's first line of defense has been found underwater
Why were archaic hominins making copies of stone tools out of pachyderm bones? Could it have been respect, hundreds of thousands of years before Homo sapiens even existed?
Pick up a pickax or a paintbrush and join the experts in the field, in search of clues to our history. Tip: Book in advance and bring a hat
First farmers in southern Turkey were local hunter-gatherers, not migrants from the Levant who brought farming techniques
Scientists found microbes that survived for thousands of years inside pores in the clay of ancient pottery used to make and store beer and wine
Supreme Court rejects NGOs petition, arguing that publishing information publicly could expose archaeologists to academic boycott and undermine Israel’s position in future diplomatic negotiations
Roman-era mining activities increased atmospheric lead concentrations in Europe at least 10-fold, according to analysis of the Mont Blanc ice cores
Team calculated the probability that Australopithecus sediba, which existed 800,000 years after the earliest-known human, was ancestral to the human lineage, and concluded it isn’t very likely
At a 2,000-year-old archaeological site, U.S. military veterans who suffer from trauma uncover lost treasures — and learn how to recover
Horses have only been bred for speed in the last few centuries, says the study – and the passion for breeding thoroughbreds is diminishing resistance to disease
New research on the Mesha Stele suggests that King Balak, the Moabite leader who according to the Bible tried to curse the Israelites, may have been a historical figure
Jawbone found high up on the Tibetan Plateau, 2,400km from the low-lying Denisova Cave, sheds light on the mysterious origin of Sherpas' tolerance for hypoxia
The six-year-old MuCEM has given Marseilles a new lease on life, but there's little trace of Israel in its exhibits, whose subjects include our region’s important ports
From enigmatic burials in prehistoric Jordan to the ancient Sumerian demoness Lilitu, the vampiric archetype originated early, and endures in a form the ancient Romans would recognize very well
A new find – a fortified wall in Lachish – proves the Kingdom of Israel and Judah was already vast in the 10th century, says the archaeologist who located it. But skeptics disagree
Everyone loves starch, but we finally have proof from the South African coast that taste for it goes back to early human history, shedding some light on how our diet evolved
The Antiquities Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that the tomb is from the Greco-Roman period, which began with Alexander the Great in 332 B.C.
Researchers deciphered the name of Maximinus Thrax, who ruled the Roman Empire between 235 and 238 A.D.
From the expulsion of the Hyksos to Armageddon, the epic Passover saga does not reflect a specific event, but seems to contain distant memories that may give us clues to the real history of the ancient Israelites
Ancient Egypt had intimate relations with Canaan, and most of the Semitic peoples migrating there would have been Canaanite. But not all.
The coin, minted in Constantinople around 420, shows Emperor Theodosius II on one side and the goddess Victory on the other
The hull of the merchant vessel found off Antalya by Hakan Oniz and team is long gone, but the shape of the copper ingots is unmistakably the same as found in Minoan palaces, and depicted in ancient Egyptian tombs
New archaeological evidence and biblical scholarship suggest Shishak wanted to make Egypt great again – but may have inadvertently steered the Israelites into creating a great nation of their own
Until now archaeologists had believed that chickens were domesticated for the sake of watching them fight, which the ancients found marvelously entertaining